MOSCOW (AP)--Russia's foreign intelligence service denied Tuesday that it had
cooperated with the CIA on monitoring North Korea's alleged nuclear program.

The press service of the intelligence service known by the Russian acronym
SVR said that a report in The New York Times about an alleged deal between the
two intelligence agencies "does not correspond to reality."

The New York Times reported on Monday that sometime in the early 1990s, SVR
agents had installed secret nuclear detection equipment inside the Russian
Embassy in the North Korean capital Pyongyang at the request of the Central
Intelligence Agency. The equipment was designed to pick up emissions of the
isotope krypton, which would signal that North Korea had resumed plutonium
reprocessing at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the paper said.

"Some forces in the United States have deliberately fabricated this
publication at a time when Russia is making intense efforts to help defuse the
tension around North Korea's nuclear program," the SVR press service said
in a statement.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov spent three days discussing ways
out of the crisis with officials in Pyongyang. He traveled to Beijing on Tuesday
and is expected to report the results of his talks to Russian President Vladimir
Putin later this week.